Congress earmarks $850K for stormwater improvements in Shockoe watershed

US Sen. Mark Warner (D–Va.) and Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (D–4th) were in Richmond Monday to announce an $850,000 congressional earmark for stormwater management improvements in the Shockoe Creek watershed.

Specifically, the funding will go to improvements around The Shockoe Project, the wide-ranging effort to honor and memorialize the history of enslaved people in Richmond.

Warner and McClellan each presented an oversized check to a crowd in Main Street Station, home of the project's Shockoe Institute.

McClellan said she hopes the project and the conversations it inspires will move the country closer to extending its founding ideals — “that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” — to all people.

“The story of our country has been the struggle to make those ideals shoot for everyone,” she said. “It is a story that is uncomfortable, but like any family trauma, you cannot heal if you don't talk about it.”

The Shockoe Project — which opened its first interactive exhibit, "Expanding Freedom," in April — will be home to a national slavery museum, reflecting its history as a key location in the slave trade. It is also at the base of the city’s largest watershed and is flood-prone.

McClellan added: “It's kind of difficult to tell that complete story and have visitors enjoy it and immerse themselves if every few years, it floods.”

She says an $850,000 influx from the federal government will help protect access to the area’s history.

Among the major renovations and restorations planned for the Shockoe Project is Lumpkin’s Slave Jail, which will be underground. The money will help cover a buried concrete wall encasing the site — effectively preventing groundwater from seeping in — along with additional drainage. It was not immediately clear if the cash will cover other stormwater management efforts in the area.

McClellan also hinted at more earmarks coming in 2027, saying Richmond’s aging water system needs attention.

Warner acknowledged that $850,000 is small compared to what the federal government can provide, and said it has been a struggle to get funding out to various projects with President Donald Trump’s administration cancelling grants and programs left and right.

“The city was also counting on another $12 million of money that had been appropriated as part of [the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] that the Trump administration just cancelled, illegally,” Warner said. “Now we finally forced him with Jenn McClellan, [US Rep.] Bobby Scott and [US Sen.] Tim Kaine to reopen that, but these infrastructure costs are huge and the city can’t do it alone.”

He seconded McClellan’s hint at more money in future years.

Del. Delores McQuinn (D–Richmond) has been pursuing a slavery museum in Shockoe for over 25 years. She said the project is coming to fruition at a time when those in the federal government — referencing the Trump administration — seek to “deny these truths, to deter our forward progress.”

“This is a great investment in excavation, education, and elevation,” McQuinn continued. “It is an investment toward liberty, remembrance, repair, and true justice for all.”